Video poker profits pour in

By South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- Video poker lawsuits are in legal limbo but the profits from the poker games keep pouring in.

And operators in North Augusta and Aiken County are big winners.

For fiscal year 1996-97 the county ranked 10th in the state with gross receipts collected by video poker operators of $36 million. North Augusta finished fourth among all cities for the quarter ending June 30 with 931 machines and gross receipts of almost $26 million. In two previous quarters, video poker earnings put the city in third and fifth slots.

The average profit per location in North Augusta, which has a concentration of poker malls with multiple machines, is $32,421. The state average per machine is $19,795.

Columbia, Greenville and Myrtle Beach ranked ahead of North Augusta, and Fort Mill came in fifth.

The data was released Wednesday by the state Department of Revenue. State officials rely solely on quarterly financial reports filed under law by the video operators themselves.

The rise in poker profits in Aiken County has paralleled a decline in profits for poker owners in Edgefield County, where many people headed to play the games after the plugs were pulled in 1995 in Aiken.

According to the state revenue's report, profits in Edgefield County fell from $27 million in the last quarter of 1996 to $18 million in the quarter ending June 30.

In 1994, county-by-county referendums in Aiken and 11 other counties banned poker payouts and the machines were silenced effective July 1, 1995. But in November 1996 the state Supreme Court tossed out the referendum results as unconstitutional and the poker games were lit up again.

Since then a battle royal has been fought in lawsuits by both sides of the issue, and it could be a year or more before the game is played to its conclusion.